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Brock Mission has been able to reduce the number of homeless people it turns away from its emergency shelter, but it still doesn’t accept everyone who needs a bed.

It’s an issue that arises each winter when temperatures plunge and some homeless people are left looking for shelter.

A passionate group of advocates has lobbied for a zero-barrier or minimum-barrier shelter that would admit people with challenging mental health or addiction issues.

Brock Mission, the municipally funded emergency shelter for men, doesn’t allow people to drink alcohol, do drugs, sell drugs, smoke inside, steal or be violent or threatening inside the shelter. People can show up drunk or under the influence of drugs and be admitted, as long as they’re not violent or threatening, a city official says.

Through a pilot program started with additional funding from the city in late 2010, Brock Mission has been able to deal with the more intensive staffing requirements for people with mental health and addiction issues, city social services manager Linda Mitchelson said.

“There is still a need for all of our shelters to balance the needs of the individuals and keep all of the clients safe,” she said. “There has been a notable increased ability to respond, and the requirement to respond, to the needs of the people with even more complicated mental health and addictions issues in our shelters.”

The pilot program was extended and is part of the shelter’s ongoing funding.

In a report on the homelessness programs in April 2011, city staff stated there were no more than six men banned from Brock Mission and two women banned from Cameron House.

Mitchelson said she doesn’t have a count of the number of people sleeping on the streets overnight, but she has heard it’s three or four people and only one of them is banned from the shelters.

Bans from the shelters are temporary or can be appealed.

Janet Wilkins, a resident who has volunteered with homeless people, claims the city gave the shelter $60,000 in late 2010 to renovate the basement of Brock Mission on Murray St. for a harm reduction space for people who can’t always be placed with the rest of the shelter users.

“Sometimes people who have mental illness have violent outbreaks… That’s what the basement is supposed to be used for,” she said. “The renovations never happened… It wasn’t used for what it’s supposed to be used for.”

Mitchelson responded that the money was never intended to build a space, but was directed for additional staffing – and she doesn’t know where people are getting the $60,000 figure.

In December 2010, staff updated council on the work underway to “strengthen” the hostel system.

They mentioned that a four-month pilot program was providing a life skills program in the upstairs of the shelter with additional programming for life skills, addiction services, housing help and other support.

As part of that pilot program, a harm reduction program would operate in the downstairs area of the shelter where clients could stay overnight and leave in the morning, staff stated.

“While this is not a minimum barrier shelter, the program would receive funding for staffing,” staff stated. “This will provide additional supervision and support to better accommodate the needs of participants presenting with difficult behaviours resulting from mental health or substance use.”

Together, the life skills and harm reduction programs would cost $12,000 for the four-month period.

Ashburnham Ward Coun. Keith Riel insists that city council approved the money, which he recollected being $60,000 for a six-month program, for renovations to create a space downstairs in the shelter for the hard-to-service individuals.

“Instead of expelling them from Brock, they would be sent downstairs and there would be professional help waiting for them,” he said.

The money was “hived off” to support addictions programs at the shelter, Riel said.

“It is a storage room. There is no room downstairs,” he said.

In another update to council in July 2011, staff informed council that Brock Mission found more of its users were suited for the harm reduction program than it had expected, which ruled out using the downstairs for the program.

The community spent roughly $1.2 million on the shelter system last year with 40 beds at Brock Mission, 10 beds for women at Cameron House and 15 beds for youth and 15 family beds at Youth Emergency Shelter.